


their rats are bigger than ours

by angielovestoasties



Category: 1917 (Movie 2019), 1917 - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Death, Explosion, French, Sad, Violence, french village vibes, german trench scene, if you know 1917 you know what scene this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:33:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22626388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angielovestoasties/pseuds/angielovestoasties
Summary: “Scho, you better bloody be alive. Scho! Wake up!” He yanks Schofield up by the collar of his jacket. Schofield begins to cough and choke on the dust, reaching up towards Blake.“We need to keep moving, or it’s going to collapse on us.” Blake yanks Schofield to his feet, dragging him towards the tunnel.
Relationships: Lance Corporal Schofield/Lance Corporal Blake, Tom Blake & William Schofield, Tom Blake/William Schofield
Comments: 23
Kudos: 46





	their rats are bigger than ours

**Author's Note:**

> I am so sorry for this.

Blake and Scho hold their rifles at the ready, jumping towards the German front-line trench, aiming towards any living souls that may still be there. They both scan their guns up and down the trench, ensuring that they’re all clear. At the sight of the empty trench, Schofield turns to look at Blake, who heaves out a sigh of relief.

“Fuck, they really have gone.” They both jumped down into the trench, looking around in awe at the sight before them. The German trenches were immensely better than the British trenches. The trench was deeper than expected, with reinforced walls and stable walkways. Schofield leaned against the side of the trench, grabbing a bandage from out of his pack and his canteen. 

He winced as he poured water over the wound, gritting his teeth as he shakily emptied the remnants of his canteen. Blake notices and walks over, looking at Schofield’s hand and holding out his own canteen. “Here, use this. Your hand alright?” Schofield takes the canteen with gratitude in his eyes, pouring more water over his wound. 

Blake takes the canteen from him when it’s fully empty and Schofield wraps the bandage around his hand, tightening it to stop the bleeding. He tucks the end in and then turns to face Blake, mouth pulled into a tight grimace. “It’s fine. It’ll heal, eventually.” Blake looks at him with sympathy in his eyes, wanting to take the pain away from him.

They hear a squeak coming from Schofield’s jacket and realisation hits both of them. Blake scrambles to reach his hand inside to the breast pocket, wrapping his hands around the source of the mysterious squeaking and yanking it out. 

“Remy! Are you ok?” Blake cups his hands and allows Remy to stand, who in return stared up at him with his big brown eyes. Remy squeaks and nods, brushing his hands on his shoulders to clean himself off.

Schofield walks towards Blake, looking down at Remy gently. “I was beginning to think I’d killed the poor bugger.” Schofield takes Remy gently from Blake and places him on his shoulder, taking the gun from where it was leaning against the trench wall.

“Let’s keep on moving, we have to get out of the trench.” Remy crawls up to sit on top of Schofield’s head, wrapping his tiny fits around tufts of Schofield’s head, go give him directions of where to go. They make their way up the trench, guns held tightly in front of them. When they get to the next bend, Remy tugs his left hand of hair, signalling Schofield to turn to his left. 

They repeat this process until they make it to the next dimly lit dugout, Blake shining his torch down to see the path in front of them. He turns towards Remy and Schofield, gesturing his head towards the entrance. Schofield nods and ushers Blake to move inside, following behind him.

The room opens out into large barracks, bunk beds spread out evenly among the space. As they continue walking through the space, Schofield notices a photograph of a wife and child pinned to a bed and stops for a beat. He stares at the photo until he feels Remy tugging at his hair, ushering him forward and away from his thoughts. He continues following after Blake as they move into the office quarters. 

Blake turns towards the tunnel to his left, eyeing out the entrance. Remy tugs Schofield towards the box of supplies, eager to see what kind of food they had left. He was sick of eating the remnants of Schofield and Blake’s meals. 

“There’s our way out.” Blake turns to face towards Schofield. He catches movement out of the corner of his eye and turns to face it, spotting a massive rat gnawing on a canvas sack hanging from the roof.

“Bloody hell, even their rats are bigger than ours.” He’s fixated on the rat, who scrambles up the rope towards the beams, scurrying along to the other canvas bags.

He hears a squeak of protest from Remy and turns to face towards him, guilt showing in his face.

“Sorry Remy, I didn’t mean you. You’re a sophisticated young man.” Remy lets out a squeak of pleasure and relaxes on top of Schofield’s head. Schofield picks up one of the cans and shine’s his torchlight on it, trying to make out the writing on the can. 

“What is it?” Blake walks towards him, stopping mid-way across the room, curiosity in his eyes. Maybe it was something that they could take with him - might be better than what they were given back at the British line. 

“Boche dog meat.” Remy crawls down from his head and down his body, making his way to investigate the cans of food himself. Schofield shines his torch towards the other stack of tins and freezes in his spot. 

“What’s wrong?” Blake goes to move forward, but Remy hurry’s towards him and tries to push him away from walking. “Scho, what’s wrong?”

Schofield shines his torch onto a spot on the floor. Barely visible, a line of wire is seen running from the edge of the can of food to the doorway in front of them. Tripwire.

“Tripwire.” As they stand still in their spots and Schofield hops over the wire, making his way to join the other two, a loud bang resonates from behind them. Remy turns and scuttles towards the rat, squeaking at him.

Schofield and Blake jump in their spots and turn towards the two rats, watching their conversation with wonder and curiosity. They notice Remy’s squeaks becoming more frantic and quick as he tries to push the other rat away, who’s dragging his meal away from the others to feast on alone. Remy gives up, instead running towards Schofield and tugging on his legs, trying to get him to move towards the tunnel out of the room. 

“What is he doing?” Schofield looks towards Blake, confusion clear in his eyes.

“I think he wants us to leave.” Blake looks down at Remy as he starts to frantically squeak and pull at them. That’s when they notice it.

The other rat was pulling the canvas bag towards the doorway - straight into the trip wire. They start to panic and grab their guns, ready to shoot the rat. But it was too late.

The walls begin to shake as the trip wire was triggered, an explosion causing them to fall down onto the hard floor. Blake coughs as he stands up, hearing muffled yelling coming from the rubble in front of him. 

“Scho!  Scho! Where are you?” Blake rushes towards the pile of rubble as the walls groan and crumble around him, scraping through the rubble near the source of the sound, hoping to find his body. After much effort he finds Schofield - still and silent - and prays to God that he’s still alive. 

“Scho, you better bloody be alive. Scho! Wake up!” He yanks Schofield up by the collar of his jacket. Schofield begins to cough and choke on the dust, reaching up towards Blake.

“We need to keep moving, or it’s going to collapse on us.” Blake yanks Schofield to his feet, dragging him towards the tunnel.

“I can’t see… I can’t see!” Schofield clutches onto Blake tightly, letting him lead the way.

“Stop moving! There’s a mineshaft, you’re going to have to jump.” Blake lets go of Schofield and jumps over the hole, turning to face him. 

“I can’t!” Schofield panics, feeling the walls around him shake as he tries to clear his eyes, blinded still by the infinite amount of dust in his eyes. 

“You have to trust me! Just jump, I’ll catch you!” Schofield takes a deep breath and jumps, latching onto Blake tightly. Blake pulls him forward as they stumble forwards, toward a light ahead that begins to grow larger and larger.

“We’re nearly there, trust me, Remy will be there too…” Blake and Schofield run out of the German trench as the entrance crumbles behind them, leaving the trench completely destroyed.

Schofield stumbles and sits down, opening his canteen and pulling the remaining water over his eyes, trying to get the dust out. Blake gives him his canteen, helping him get it off his face and into his mouth, washing away all the dust. Schofield gives a few blink and looks around, dread clear upon his face.

“Scho… what is it?” Schofield takes a deep breath and looks up towards Blake, his face sullen. He wears a mask of apathy as he points back towards the German trench.

“It’s Remy… he’s gone…” Blake shudders as he realises that they’d both left Remy behind in the trench. That Remy had sacrificed himself for them. Schofield stands to his feet and covers his face with his eyes, trying to understand where they were to go from here. Blake curses and kicks at the ground, furious with himself. The weight of the situation falls upon them both and they turn towards the other, standing still.

“We have to keep going… we must keep going for Remy.” Schofield nods and pulls out the tin from his pocket, grabbing a photo and placing it on the ground near the log. The photo is of Remy and his brother Emile, just before Remy left for the war. 

"We’ll do it for you Remy. No other bastard rat could compare to you.” Saying their last goodbyes, Schofield and Blake turn on their feet, continuing their journey, knowing that Remy’s soul would always rest in France. His soul was resting where he’d always belonged.


End file.
